Caitlin Stasey Slams Fairfax For Pulling Shoot After She Refused To Go Nude

Australian actor and staunch defender of body and sexual rights, Caitlin Stasey has sparked a row on through social media, taking aim at Fairfax Media publication Good Weekend Magazine over a proposed feature article that allegedly involved a nude photo shoot – one that was sprung on her without prior knowledge.

Stasey teed off on the publication – and commissioning editor Ben Naparstek – after she rightfully refused the photo shoot, and the publication subsequently withdrew their feature proposal.
In a series of fiery tweets, Stasey accused the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and Naparstek of working under the assumption that she would consent to a nude photo shoot for Good Weekend, owing to the fact that she has posed nude for portrait photography in the past.

Reporting by Crikey earlier this morning backed up Stasey’s claims that the concept for the shoot had not been run past her or her team, and that Naparstek had stated that the shoot would be pulled unless his intended brief went ahead.

This isn’t Naparstek’s first brush with ethical controversy. The young Fairfax editor – viewed as something of a wunderkind – clashed with John Van Tiggelen – the former editor of The Monthly – following Naparstek’s appointment to the editors position at Good Weekend. Van Tiggelen labelled Naparstek “a fucking dalek,” and accused him of deliberately attempting to poach The Monthly’s writing contributors in the wake of an exodus of Good Weekend writing staff, leaving Van Tiggelen to quip that the publication “had never looked more bereft.” Naparstek was also accused over offering hugely inflated per-word prices to Monthly contributors to jump ship, as well as undervaluing female writers.
In response to the allegations, Naparstek stated the following:

“I totally understood and respected Caitlin’s decision not to pursue our shoot, which would have been a classy shoot with a leading American fashion photographer in line with the beautiful artistic imagery she’d published of herself on Herself.Com, which she’d just launched.”

“We decided not to pursue the shoot when her agent offered us access to existing portraits instead. But with the Herself.Com peg no longer as strong, we decided to delay the profile until later in the year so it could be tied to the new seasons of her series Please Like Me and Reign. Apologies to Caitlin for any miscommunication.”
But Stasey immediately shot back at these comments, stating on Twitter that the comments were “absolute bullshit,” that the shoot “was scheduled after [she] voiced [her] concerns and asked for a new theme,” after which Good Weekend cancelled the shoot altogether, and that the claim of being given access to existing portraits only was a flat out fabrication.
More as the story develops.
Photo: Jon Kopaloff via Getty Images.

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